Adjustable and removable canopy for baby carriage



June 29, 1965 D. B. SMITH 3,191,958

ADJUSTABLE AND REMOVABLE CANOPY FOR BAiBY CARRIAGE Filed Aug. 9, 1965 55 a r. 45mm"! INVENTOP DONALD B. SMITH ATTORNEYS cally constructed about its longitudinal axis.

United States Patent 3,191,958 ADJUSTABLE AND REMOVABLE CANOPY FOR BABY CARRIAGE Donald B. Smith, Orillia, Ontario, Canada, assignor to Heywood-Wakefield Company of Canada, Limited, Orillia, Ontario, Canada, a corporation of Ontario, Canada Filed Aug. 9, 1963, Ser. No. 301,067 Claims. (Cl. 28036) This invention relates to carriages, perambulators and the like, and is particularly concerned with baby carriages having removable and adjustable sun canopies.

Baby carriages are usually provided with sun shades in the form of partially enclosed hoods or canopies. Although these shades succeed in protecting the child from overexposure to the suns rays, they sufier from other disadvantages making their use impractical in many instances. For example, partially enclosed hoods obstruct the free circulation of fresh air and are often clumsy to manipulate and not readily adjustable. In addition, many sun shades presently in use are not readily removable from the carriage and thereby present unnecessary obstructions to the use of the carriage indoors.

Consequently, an object of the present invention is tov of being quickly and easily removed when not needed for the protection of the child; j

Another object of the present invention is to provide a readily adjustable canopy capable of being quickly and easily adjusted with respect to the carriage in order to provide maximum protection for the child seated therein.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a canopy capableof'protecting a child seated in. the carriage without obstructing the free circulation of fresh air.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide a canopy capable of being vertically adjusted with respect to the carriage structure while constantly maintaining a horizontal relationship thereto.

These and other objects of the present invention will become more apparent as the description proceeds with the aid of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a view in side elevation of a baby carriage having mounted thereon the canopy assembly herein chosen for purposes of disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a mounting bracket partially broken away to show inner structural details.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 2. I

FIG. 4 is a view in side elevation taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is a view showing pivotal connections of the two offset link arms to the supporting bracket and canopy.

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 5 with the canopy shown in a fully depressed position.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a collapsible baby carriage 10 is shown provided'with a removable adjustable canopy assembly generally indicated at 11. It should be understood at this time that the baby carriage 10 is symmetri- Consequently, for ease of description, only the side shown in FIG. 1 will be referred to in the general description to follow.

The carriage is comprised basically of an X-type frame having opposed pairs of tubular support members 12 and 14 pivotally connected as at 16, their lower extremities in turn connected to the mobile base section 18 by coiled shock absorbers 20. A tubular U-shaped pusher arm 22 is attached to the upper extremities of support members 12 as at 24 to provide an extension thereof. Chair side n ce arms 26 having a canvas seat 28 depending therefrom are pivotally attached to the upper extremities of tubular support members 14 as at 30 and to'pusher arm 22 by pivot pins 32. A backrest 34 and foot support 36 are additionally provided in order that a child may be seated with his feet extending to the right as seen in FIG. 1.

Having thus described the basic carriage assembly, attention will now be directed to the removable adjustable canopy assembly 11 with particular reference to FIGS. 2-6. It should again be noted that although canopy assembly 11 is also symmetrically constructed about the longitudinal axis of the carriage 10, for ease of description only the side shown in FIG. lwill be described.

As can be seen in FIG. 2, although pusher arm 22 is pivotally connected by pivot pin 32 to each chair side arm 26, these elements are held in spaced relationship by tubular spacer bushing 38 which may be fabricated of plastic or some other non-metallic substance. An inverted channel shaped support bracket 40 having depending side walls 42 and 44 provides the means of attaching each side of the canopy assembly 11 to the lower carriage structure. As can be seen in FIG. 3, depending side wall 44 is provided with an L-shaped receiving slot 45 having lateral dimensions corresponding to the outer diameter of spacer bushing 38. Opposed depending side wall 42 is in turn provided with upwardly disposed offset link arms 46 and 48 pivotally connected thereto by pins 56 and 52. In order to enable the lower extremity of arm 46 to clear arm 45, a second spacer bushing 57 is threaded on pin 50 between the outer face of depending side wall 42 and the inner surface of the arm.

The upper extremities of offset link arms 46 and it; are pivotally attached as at 53 and 55 to the horizontally disposed canopy frame 54in turn surrounded and covered by a fabric canopy covering 56. Thus it can be seen that a four-bar linkage is provided at each' side of the canopy assembly 11 comprised of support bracket 40, oifset link arms 46 and 48 and canopy frame 54. Be cause of this geometric relationship, canopy 56 must of necessity remain parallel with respect to brackets 40 regardless of its vertical position in'relation thereto.

As can further be seen from FIG. 1, because canopy 56 is held above the carriage structure by relatively thin arms 46 and 48, the free circulation of air is not hampered.

The procedure to be followed in mounting the canopy assembly 11 on the carriage structure will now be described. Brackets 40 are first held above chair side arms 26 in parallel spaced relationship thereto with the open extremities of L-shaped slots 45 verticall aligned over tubular spacer bushings 38. The brackets are then downwardly displaced to a position straddling side arms 26. When so positioned, depending side walls 44 of brackets 40 are located between side arms 26 and pusher arms 22 in the spaced created by spacer bushings 38, the bushings in turn contained Within L-shaped slots 45. The brackets are then axially displaced with respect to side arms 26 to a position as shown in FIG. 3 in order to seat pivot pins 32 and their bushings 38 in locked engagement at the inner extremities of L-shaped slots 45.

Threaded pins 58 are then laterally inserted through oppositely disposed apertures 60 in depending side walls 42 and 44 of brackets 40 in order to prevent accidental axial movement of the brackets with respect to chair side arms 26. Wing nuts 62 are threaded to the extremities of pins 58 in order to urge depending side walls 42 and 44 together and thereby provide a means of positively clamping brackets 40 on arms 26. Thus it can be seen that support brackets 40 may be quickly and securely mounted on chair side arms 26. In addition, when the canopy assembly 11 is not needed, it can quickly be removed from the carriage by simply reversing the above described procedure in order to disengage brackets 40.

The method of adjusting the vertical position of canopy frame 54 with respect to the carriage will now be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6. The opposed offset link arms 46 which are located on either side of canopy assembly 11 are pivotally attached at their upper extremities to frame 54 by means of bolts having wing nuts 63 threaded thereto. Thus it can be seen that by tightening wing nuts 63, pivotal motion of the canopy frame 54 with respect to the support brackets 40 will be prevented. When a vertical adjustment of the canopy is desired, wing nuts 63 are simply loosened. In this manner the canopy frame can be vertically displaced with respect to the support brackets 40 while remaining constantly parallel thereto. When the canopy is fully depressed to the flat position as shown in FIG. 5, the offset link arms 46 and 48 cross each other as at 64, causing a wedging or tightening action which holds the elements firm and prevents rattling.

It is my intention to cover all changes and modifications of the invention chosen for purposes of disclosure which do not constitute departures from the spirit and scope of the invention.

I claim:

1. In combination with a baby carriage having a frame structure including chair side arms pivotally attached to upwardly disposed pusher arms, said chair side arms spaced from said pusher arms at the points of pivotal connection therebetwcen by tubular spacer bushings, a removable vertically adjustable canopy assembly comprising: inverted channel shaped mounting brackets having downwardly disposed inner and outer side walls, means for positioning and locking said brackets on said chair side arms at said points of pivotal connection; a horizontally disposed canopy member overlying said frame structure and movably mounted by pivotal means on said supporting brackets; and means for vertically adjusting the position of said canopy with respect to said frame structure while constantly maintaining its horizontal disposition.

2. The combination as set forth in claim 1 wherein said means for positioning and locking said brackets on said chair side arms at said points of pivotal connection is comprised of a receiving slot located in the outer side Wall of each said brackets, the lateral dimension of said slot corresponding to the outer diameter of said tubular spacer bushings, said bracket positioned on said chair side arm at said point of pivotal connection with said tubular spacer bushing extending laterally through said slot, and means for decreasing the space between said side walls following the mounting of said bracket on said chair side arm in order to positively clamp said bracket thereon.

3. The combination as set forth in claim 2 wherein said receiving slot is substantially L-shaped in order to permit said bracket to be vertically lowered on said chair side arm and subsequently axially displaced with respect thereto a locked position with said tubular spacer bushing firmly seated adjacent the inner end extremity of said slot.

4. The combination as set forth in claim 1 wherein said pivotal means for movably mounting said horizontally disposed canopy on said supporting brackets is comprised of: two sets of at least two olf-set link arms pivotally attached at their lower extremities to the inner side walls of each said brackets and extending upwardly therefrom, the upper extremities of said link arms pivotally attached to either side of said horizontally disposed canopy.

5.. The combination as set forth in claim 4 wherein said means for vertically adjusting the position of said canopy with respect to said frame structure is comprised of bolts and adjustable nuts pivotally connecting the upper extremity of one of said link arms in each set to said canopy, whereby tightening of said nuts will prevent pivotal displacement of said canopy with respect to said supporting brackets and its vertical displacement with relation to said frame structure.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 884,543 4/08 Turner 28036 1,255,185 2/18 Lehmkuhl 248281 1,348,723 8/20 Lester 28037 1,869,423 8/32 Heuer 296107 2,280,729 4/42 Sutton 296137 ARTHUR L. LA POINT, Primary Examiner. 

1. IN COMBINATION WITH A BABY CARRIAGE HAVING A FRAME STRUCTURE INCLUDING CHAIR SIDE ARMS PIVOTALLY ATTACHED TO UPWARDLY DISPOSED PUSHER ARMS, SAID CHAIR SIDE ARMS SPACED FROM SAID PUSHER ARMS AT THE POINTS OF PIVOTAL CONNECTION THEREBETWEEN BY TUBULAR SPACER BUSHINGS, A REMOVABLE VERTICALLY ADJUSTABLE CANOPY ASSEMBLY COMPRISING: INVERTED CHANNEL SHAPED MOUNTING BRACKETS HAVING DOWNWARDLY DISPOSED INNER AND OUTER SIDE WALLS, MEANS FOR POSITIONING AND LOCKING SAID BRACKETS ON SAID CHAIR SIDE ARMS AT SAID POINTS OF PIVOTAL CONNECTION; A HORIZONTALLY DISPOSED CANOPY MEMBER OVERLYING SAID FRAME STRUCTURE AND MOVABLY MOUNTED BY PIVOTAL MEANS ON SAID SUPPORTING BRACKETS; AND MEANS FOR VERTICALLY ADJUSTING THE POSITION OF SAID CANOPY WITH RESPECT TO SAID FRAME STRUCTURE WHILE CONSTANTLY MAINTAINING ITS HORIZONTAL DISPOSITION. 